This Is the Thinnest Mechanical Watch in the World

The new Master Ultra Thin Squelette by Jaeger-Lecoultre (a mouthful, I know) is not just a masterpiece of a mechanical watch, complete with jaw-dropping Swiss-made mechanisms that are so tiny as to be almost beyond belief. It is also the new thinnest mechanical watch in the world, with a nutso-thin profile of just 3.6 millimeters.

The Master Ultra Thin Squelette (I just can't get enough of that name) just narrowly eeks its way into the title, beating the previous champion, the Piaget Altiplano 900PPiaget Altiplano 900P, by just .05mm—roughly the breadth of a human hair.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

To put that in perspective, this is thinner than:

an iPhone 6 (6.9mm)

two nickels (3.9mm)

a stack of five credit cards (3.8mm)

And it is exactly the size of 3 CDs.

The watch is hand-wound and contains 119 components. It also comes with an optional ring of 19 diamonds around the edge, though that model has a case that's 1mm beefier than the non-adorned model. Meanwhile, the movement of the watch—the actual business part that does the ticking—is only 1.85mm thick in both models, or just slightly thicker than a hand of five-card stud.

Naturally this kind of thinness doesn't come cheap; the Master Ultra Thin Squelette (heh) is $58,500 or $61,000 for pink and white gold versions respectively. $72,500 or $75,000 if you want those bulky diamonds too. But hey you know what they say: Less is more.